As part of their journey to the NOLA Poetry Festival, poets from around the world recently made a stop at Southeastern to read from selected collections. Local poets Alison Pelegrin, Carolyn Hembree and Skye Jackson were joined by international writers Ha Jaeyoun, Hwang Yuwon and Jake Levine.
Jackson began the event by reading from selected works in her collection “Libre,” which will be released in February 2025. Her first poem, “Can We Touch Your Hair?” focuses on her uncomfortable experience with people asking to touch her hair in New Orleans, which led to her writing the piece. It is one of her favorites in the collection.
“I thought a lot about that experience and I wrote that poem. It’s gone pretty far, and Billy Collins selected it for the Library of Congress,” Jackson said. “It’s very dear to me, and people seem to like it, so I always read it.”
Another poem important to her, “No Foul Play Suspected,” is devoted to Kori Gauthier, an LSU student who passed away in Spring 2021. Jackson uses the piece to raise awareness of her story.
Hembree read from her collection “For Today.” One of the poems, “August 29, 2005,” reflects on the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. She called the composition “love letters to New Orleans.”
Pelegrin, who serves as the Louisiana Poet Laureate and is an English professor at SLU, read a selection of poems, including “Feast with a Mouthful of Bees.” The Poet Laureate serves as a literary ambassador for two years, traveling around the state to encourage people to engage with poetry.
Reading from her collection, international poet Ha Jaeyoung explored the hybridity and colonialism of languages in her work. Linguistic hybridity is when languages, due to close contact, begin to share and exchange linguistic features. This took place when Japan seized militaristic control over Korea in the early-to-mid 20th century.
“My country, Korea, suffered from colonialism by Japan. I think the hybridity of language is all over the world, and I think about how we can resolve or abandon our nationality.” Jaeyoung said.
Jaeyoung said her favorite aspect of poetry is how it can explore human nature and how it can serve as a method of dreaming for the better.
Jake Levine read from his new book “The Imagined Country,” and one of his pieces, “Tonight, I Am an iPhone Factory” explores the problem of pollution in Korea.
“This poem is about pollution in Korea, which is pretty real. When the sky is sky colored, it’s like a pretty fantastic day, it’s usually very white,” Levine said.
The final poet to present, Hwang Yuwon, began by explaining how writing allows him to see new perspectives on situations while joking about suffering from jet lag.
“We can see things from different perspectives. This jet lag is giving me some stance that I’ve never felt in my life. I’m trying to appreciate it,” Yuwon said.
He read from his set “Two Poems.” His first piece, “Han-shan at Cold Mountain,” explores sentiments of stagnation.
These poets, and many others, will be traversing New Orleans throughout the week and will conclude their travels at the Small Press Book Fair for reading workshop roundtables.
